Japan regards South Africa as an important research partner. This was affirmed late last month during the first session of the fourth South Africa-Japan University (SAJU) Forum Conference, at the University of Pretoria. “South Africa is a very important country for Japan,” highlighted Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology director for international cooperation Mutsuko Yasuda. South Africa was the only country in sub-Saharan Africa with which Japan had a scientific cooperation agreement, she said.

In his address to the conference, Japanese ambassador Norio Maruyama stressed that this year was an important one for both South Africa and Japan. South Africa had just elected a new government, while Japan had seen the accession of a new monarch, Emperor Naruhito. He explained that, in Japanese culture, the accession of a new emperor marked the beginning of a new era. The name chosen by the emperor for this new era was ‘Beautiful Harmony’.

He noted that there were many problems that were now international problems. “This platform (the SAJU Forum) is the most ideal platform to address these problems.”

He also expressed pleasure that President Cyril Ramaphosa had mentioned the Fourth Industrial Revolution in his State of the Nation address. The ambassador explained that Japan was trying to solve social problems, such as an ageing population and a shrinking work force, by using technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. This programme was known as ‘Society 5.0’.

“The cooperation between Japan and South Africa is . . . unique,” stated Tokyo University of Foreign Studies deputy vice chancellor Jun Matsukuma. The two countries sought to learn from each other. “We academics need to work together [across international borders],” he observed. “Academics also have the responsibility to explain their research to the public.”

By 2015, 42 cooperation agreements had been signed between Japanese and South African universities, pointed out Yasuda. Joint projects between the two countries included those developed under Japan’s Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) programme, launched more than ten years ago. The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), set by the United Nations in 2015 (for achievement by 2030), is an important objective in Japan’s international research cooperation policy. She pointed out that the Japanese government had set up an SDG ‘headquarters’ in 2016 for interdepartmental coordination.

Around the world], SDGs function as common goods and a common language among multistakeholders,” she highlighted. SDGs also promoted interdisciplinary collaboration, industry/academia/government collaboration, and international collaboration.

With regard to Africa, the SDGs and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 (for inclusive and sustainable development) “coexist and are intertwined with each other”. In August, during the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development, there will be an Africa-Japan Ministerial Dialogue Meeting on using science, technology and innovation to achieve SDGs.

Universities South Africa states that institutionalised cooperation between South African and Japanese universities goes back to 2007. That year saw an initial conference, held in Hiroshima, followed by another one in Cape Town in 2008. The initiative was relaunched in December 2016 in Pretoria, followed by another conference in Tokyo in July 2017. The latest, the fourth SAJU Forum Conference, was organised into four thematic areas. These were Health and Wellness; Security and Social Justice; Growth, Exploration and Conservation; and a Technical Session on Modalities of Research Support and Staff and Student Mobility.

In her address, Yasuda also reported that a new agreement between her department and South Africa’s National Research Foundation was being developed. She expressed the hope that ‘Beautiful Harmony” would also apply to the future of Japanese-South African relations, in general, and Japanese-South African science, technology and innovation cooperation, in particular.